Romania watches US presidential election

Nov. 2, 2012

Written by

Paul Ciocoiu

Special to the Democrat

As a foreign-affairs journalist and an English teacher by training, coming to America is definitely a professional fulfillment. America descends from the movies I grew up with into my daily palpable reality. My first visit to Miami two years ago was both a personal and professional dream come true.

This second visit now further nurtures my appetite to return.

My name is Paul Ciocoiu and I am a foreign affairs editor with the Romanian newspaper Evenimentul Zilei. I am here to cover the U.S. presidential elections, the climax of my professional activity. It’s a challenge at the same time.

America has always been present in Romania over the past seven decades. Though not physically there, America was, after World War II, in the mind of every Romanian who felt communism was a wrong choice. It was a choice they had not made, but rather had imposed upon them and which they knew they could not reverse, unless there was help from the outside.

“We desperately waited for the Americans. They never came”, my WWII-veteran grandfather used to tell me. Those words mirrored the plight of a society that overnight fell into the precipice of history. America was for many years a vivid hope for his generation of peasants suffocated by a forceful system which took from them their very best possessions for which they fought for centuries: land.

Americans came in the end. In the ‘60s, when the first U.S.-Romanian contacts occurred through the Fulbright scholarships, the United State has invested almost $2.5 billion in different sectors in Romania, according to statistics presented last year by the U.S. Embassy in Bucharest. Since 1990, after the communist regime was toppled, about 100 U.S. companies invested more than a billion dollars and created more than 15,000 jobs, according to the same figures. “We are now extraordinary partners and we will be so in the future. We are together forever,” the American ambassador in Bucharest, Mark Gitenstein, said.

A post-communist youth generation so thirsty for the new started absorbing everything coming from the West, especially from America. No wonder my country has one of the strongest pro-America feelings in Europe and probably in the world. Though a Francophone country, English is by far the most common language of choice for youngsters in Romania. In a Europe that is in economic and political disarray, Romania is turning to America for support. And America intervened when it was necessary. In this past summer’s political crisis, the worst in post-communist Romania, America stepped in and warned against serious encroachment upon the rule of law. And politicians did take the warning seriously.

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Are we interested in the US presidential elections? Yes, we are! First, because America sets an example of democracy and electoral correctness for us. There may be people in my or your country that could disagree with that, of course, but coming from a place where electoral frauds are not exceptions at all, I see America as a model. Romania is still a country in democratic transition which may continue many years from now on. And a country in transition needs a model and, most important, needs a supervisor. The United States, along with the EU, have lived up to this task.

A second argument is that Romania will host elements of the U.S. antimissile shield, a decision made by the current administration that has brought the two countries even closer and which has put my country on the world’s geostrategic map. So, anything that happens in America and that could impact on this military cooperation is closely watched in Romania. This is why all eyes were on the third presidential debate focused on foreign policy. For now, there’s no sign a change in administration may equate to a change in America’s geostrategic interests in Eastern Europe.

Last, but not least, the US elections are a show themselves. The massive deployment of electoral forces, the huge rallies, speeches, TV debates, all this effervescence generates a captivating atmosphere which one does not see anywhere else in the world. And what’s more important, the citizen is at the core of it.

There’s much left to be done in Romania in terms of political maturity. Things are moving, slowly, but definitely on the right track. It can’t be otherwise for a country that is both an EU and NATO member and to which many in the region look as an example, even if not a perfect one, of where reforms can lead. But whoever wins next Tuesday has to understand southeast Europe needs the West’s attention. Its business is not done over there, democracies are still fragile and turning the back on them is not the right attitude.